I have been saying for a while now that 2009 is going to be a great year. Looking around the world at the state of the global economy; the precarious nature of financial markets and institutions; the number of jobs being shed; and an ongoing realisation that our approach to consumption, growth, sustainability and nature are being fundamentally rethought; it is hard to pick up on why I am so optimistic.
On the one hand, these critical challenges to our established way of life – and the aspirations of developing countries – are confronting. They force us to question the legitimacy of two generations of leadership beginning in the ’70s, supported by government deregulation and the rise of communication & information technologies.
But on the other hand, they present us with real opportunities to restructure our society around a new set of priorities, and driven by a philosophy of equity, fairness, sustainability, and stewardship. This is an exciting – if uncertain – time for those of us engaged in the business of designing products, services, organizations, industries or countries. Suddenly, we are faced with design challenges on a massive scale; challenges where traditional approaches to problem-solving cannot be relied upon to deliver real, significant, solutions.
The role of design in meeting these challenges is becoming more and more recognised in business circles, albeit in the guise of ‘innovation’. Whilst the label may be different, the underlying message is clear: linear, incremental approaches to problem solving will not work to meet the challenges facing us today – in business, at the national, or the global scale.
As this recognition has dawned within the business community it has coincided with reflection on my own part about what it is that I want to be doing in my career. And what, really, have I been doing over the past few years.
My work in UX has been centred on the design of digital systems for business – web sites; e-commerce systems; and web-based business applications being the core part of my work for a decade. This work started with a focus on process and flow; error handling; and business logic. Over time, the work that I was doing went from the specific to the strategic – identifying opportunities for improvement in the overall business of the client; the way the operated; the nature of the service offered.
As that transition too place in my work, there has been a similar shift in thinking as to what is most important and interesting to me. In terms of practice, the centre of my approach has also shifted, taking on an increased flavour of research and analysis and, in doing so, starting to take on characteristics of design practice. You can see some of that shift in evidence in the beginnings of the writing I’m doing for Johnny Holland.
For me, Johnny represents a conscious re-alignment of my thinking around UX and the disciplines that come together to deliver those experiences to people. Although I have, for many years, advocated for interaction design as a central consideration in (in my case) Web projects, mentally I was still entrenched in an IA-centric world view. Since 2006 my thinking has migrated away from that IA-centricity towards an IxD-centric view of UX. Johnny represents a tangible recognition of that progression.
In a few short days I’ll be boarding a plane and heading to Memphis, TN to attend the 10th IA Summit. It will likely be the only time I attend. So if you’re going to be at IAS, be sure to say ‘Hi’.
In 2010, if I am able to make it to the US for a conference, it will be for Interaction ‘10 run by the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). The conference, attendees, presentations, location and general community are a much closer reflection of who and what I am these days. And although I’m by no means located at the core of this community in terms of skills or practice, it is certainly where my head and heart are located when it comes to my own work. What I now recognise as my tribe.
Thanks for the inspirational and timely piece.
I also see the recent challenges as an incredible opportunity for user experience (UX) professionals, from research and analysis to interaction, information and interface design. The very tenets of UX–focusing on people, synthesising multifaceted needs (e.g. customers, frontline employees, management, shareholders), improving each interaction with the system/process, guaranteeing accessibility (including keeping cost of entry low) and establishing trust between all parties–aim to foster “equity, fairness, sustainability, and stewardship”.
However, I also see a need for our practice to take it up a notch when it comes to delivering the goods. Definitions, goals and tenets all help define an industry and provide clarity in approach, but it’s the results that make or break us. As much as customers seek a more social-oriented, e-commerce platform or as employees seek a more accessible and useful intranet, it’s the stakeholders on the other side that we need to satisfy. We need to put our money where are mouths–and minds and hearts–are. The business world will then begin to internalise and institutionalise UX values.
This means understanding which research techniques will provide the best set of data; keeping our findings objective; providing figures/measurements that support our inferences; involving the business in the design process; and most of all, delivering real value (increase in revenue, decrease in costs, acquisition of new customers, retention of existing customers). If our approach is true, the results will follow.
I’m not implying that most of us in the UX industry are snake oil salesmen, but I have certainly come across some amazing examples of voodoo and wand-waving in proposals and executive presentations. It’s almost as if the people we rely on throughout the process are also the ones we try to alienate. As the finance industry has recently learned (just Google “john stewart jim cramer interview”), an elitist, hands-off approach (”Don’t worry boys, leave the number-crunching and projections to us”) can come back and bite you where it hurts.
I believe our call is to “deliver real, significant, solutions” to both users of a system and those financing it. However, our leadership and value in the business world and public sectors won’t be demonstrated and substantiated until we deliver real, financial gains.
[...] as I wrote about earlier this year I’ve recognised for some time that I’m not an information architect although I had [...]